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Michael Phelps said he was retiring after the London Olympics in 2012 and now here he is again in Rio 2016 talking retirement. On Saturday night Phelps won his 23rd Gold medal (and 28th over all Olympic medal) during the men’s 4×100-meter medley relay on Saturday night. But he says he is ready for the next chapter in his life, “I’m just ready for something different,” he told NBC. “My swimming career might be over, but I have the future ahead of me. It’s not the end of a career, it’s the beginning of a new journey.”
Phelps must have mind set on retirement this time because he shot down talk of another Olympics when team mate/competitor Ryan Lochte said Phelps would be back for Tokyo.” I guarantee he will be there,” Lochte said on NBC’s TODAY show on Friday. “I think so. I really think so. So Michael, I’ll see you in Tokyo.”
But Phelps said no way. “I have two laps left in my career so I am happy and I’m excited and looking forward to tomorrow. I saw what Lochte said and I was like ‘thanks Ryan, throw me back out there for another four years.’ If he wants to come back it will be great.” He added, “It will be fun (for me) to watch. This sport will be fun over the next four years to see how it transitions. There are a lot of young kids and they show how much talent they have here.”
The revered Olympic swimmer is just looking to spend time with family, plan his wedding to fiancee Nicole and travel after Rio. “Hopefully I’m going to travel and work some, that’s probably what I’m planning after this. I’m really looking forward to seeing [my son] Boomer and [my fiancée] Nicole and my family. I have a bunch of people that came down to watch these games and I’d like to spend some time with them.”
Photo from Instagram
